Obama Channels Mark Twain At Press Conference: 'Rumors Of My Demise May Be A Little Exaggerated'

President Barack Obama held a press conference at the White House
on Tuesday, answering questions on a broad array of items on his
legislative agenda that have struggled to gain any momentum in
Congress.

Obama was asked about the
recent failure of gun-control legislation to pass through the
Senate, as well as the fact that sequestration is still in place.
ABC reporter
Jonathan Karl asked Obama if he was, essentially, a "lame duck"
at this early stage of his second term.

"If you put it that way — maybe
I should just pack up and go home! As Mark Twain said, rumors of
my demise might be a bit exaggerated at this point," Obama
said.

Obama also answered questions
about the conflict in Syria and the Boston bombings. And he
praised NBA player
Jason Collins, who on Monday became the first player in a major
American sports league to publicly reveal that he is gay.

Check out a full recap of the
press conference, question-by-question, below:

Question 1: Obama gets a question on his
"red line" on Syria and on survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attack in Benghazi, Libya.

"What we've been seeing is a slowly unfolding disaster for the
Syrian people," Obama said, repeating that the use of chemical
weapons is a "game-changer."

He suggested that the administration needs more evidence on
Syria's chemical weapon use in order to decide what type of
action to take.

"When I said the use of chemical weapons would be a game-changer,
that wasn't a position unique to the United States," Obama said.

When asked a follow-up on whether that would include military
action, Obama said that the U.S. would have to "look at the range
of options that are available to us."

On Benghazi survivors, Obama said he is "not familiar with this
notion that anyone has been blocked from testifying."

Question 2: Obama is asked about the Boston
bombings by CNN — and if
it means, as some like Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested, that
the U.S. has taken a "step back" on national security.

"No, Mr. Graham is not right, though I'm sure it generated some
headlines," he said.

"Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties,"
Obama added. "But this is hard stuff."

He said that one of the challenges the U.S. now faces is the
threat of "self-radicalized" individuals like the Tsarnaev
brothers.

Obama said that Russia and its leaders have been "very
cooperative" with the U.S. since the Boston bombings.

Question 3: Obama gets a question from
ABC's Jon Karl, who asks if he "still has the juice to get the
rest of your agenda through Congress."

"If you put it that way, Jon," he quipped, "maybe I should just
pack up and go home. Golly."

"Rumors of my demise have been a little exaggerated," he said,
paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Obama blamed what he called "dysfunction" on Capitol Hill —
lamenting, for example, that "even the most modest piece of
legislation" needs 60 votes to pass through the Senate.

Obama said that the sequester is harming the economy, and that he
has been proven right on the sequester by people who called him
"chicken little" because of the recent passage of a bill to fix
the mounting flight delays at U.S. airports.

"You seem to suggest that these folks over there have no
responsibility, and my job is to get them to behave. That’s their
job," he said of Congress.

Question 4: Obama is asked about the
growing hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay. He said that it is "not
a surprise" that the U.S. has problems at the facility.

"Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe," he said,
casting it as expensive, inefficient, and a recruitment tool for
terrorist groups.

"We've got to close Guantanamo," he said.

"The idea that we would still maintain forever a group of
individuals that have not been tried — that needs to stop."

He pointed to the individuals who planned to bomb Times Square
and the so-called "underwear bomber" as examples of "how we
prosecute terrorists."